Farm Law Fails in U.S. House on Cuts to Food Stamps

Supporters for passage of a new agriculture law rally near the U.S. Capitol in Washington, on Sept. 12, 2012. Photographer: Rich Clement/Bloomberg

June 20 (Bloomberg) -- Enough U.S. House Republicans defied
Speaker John Boehner and joined Democrats to defeat agriculture
policy legislation that would cut $20.5 billion in food-stamp
spending.

The 195-234 vote today followed by less than two weeks
Senate passage of a $955 billion version and leaves spending on
farm programs in limbo. Without a new law, they begin to expire
on Sept. 30. Bill advocates lost as 62 Republicans joined 172
Democrats, including that party’s top leaders, to defeat the
measure.

“This bill should never have been brought to the floor”
because of the cuts to food stamps, said Representative Yvette
Clarke, a New York Democrat. “We are in a time when people are
vulnerable, and this bill would make them more vulnerable.”

The bill lost Democratic support after Republicans added a
provision that would let states run pilot projects that set work
requirements for food-stamp recipients.

The farm bill, which would benefit crop-buyers such as
Archer-Daniels-Midland Co., grocers including Supervalu Inc. and
insurers including Wells Fargo & Co. and Ace Ltd, has been
working through Congress for almost two years. Current
authorization for U.S. Department of Agriculture programs,
passed in 2008, was extended last year after the Senate approved
a plan and the House declined to consider its own.

“Today’s failure leaves the entire food and agriculture
sector in the lurch,” Danny Murphy, president of the American
Soybean Association, said today in a statement.

Democratic Opposition

The defeated bill proposed cutting the Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program, known as food stamps, and boosting
insurance subsidies to growers of corn, wheat and other crops.
Democrats including Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California
and Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the second-ranking Democrat in the
House, voted against the bill.

Boehner, an Ohio Republican, and Majority Leader Eric
Cantor, a Virginia Republican, voted for the bill. Some
Republicans who opposed the bill had sought deeper cuts in food
stamp spending and others wanted reductions in farm assistance.

“This proved to be a heavier lift than even I expected,”
said Representative Frank Lucas of Oklahoma, the Republican
chairman of the Agriculture Committee, which recommended
approval of the measure. “I expect there will be a next step.”

A Republican aide said Democrats withdrew their support
after an amendment, offered by Representative Steve Southerland,
a Florida Republican, was approved, letting states apply federal
welfare work requirements to food stamps, which potentially
would shrink the pool of recipients.

‘Professionalism, Maturity’

“The Democrats told us clearly right before the vote that
they knew that the Southerland amendment was going to pass, and
they decided at the last minute to pull their support,” said
Rory Cooper, a spokesman for Cantor. “This was a complete
collapse of professionalism and maturity on the Democratic
Party’s part.”

Senator Debbie Stabenow, chairwoman of the Senate
Agriculture Committee, said she is urging Boehner to consider
passing the Senate’s bill or to do “whatever it takes” to find
a bipartisan plan.

“I’m very disappointed, very surprised,” Stabenow, a
Michigan Democrat, said in a brief interview. “Sixteen million
people are counting on it who work in agriculture, and there’s
no reason that they cannot come up with a bipartisan approach
that will get enough votes to pass in the House.”

While supporters had called the bill a compromise that cut
farm payments and reined in welfare programs, budget watchdogs
said the plan was loaded with provisions benefiting producers of
everything from catfish to sushi rice at a time when profits are
projected at a record $128.2 billion this year.

Spending by farm lobbyists increased to $138 million last
year from $112 million in 2007, the year before the previous
farm bill passed, according to the Center for Responsive
Politics, a Washington-based research group that tracks spending
on lobbying. Agriculture-industry employees spent $91 million on
the 2012 elections, up from $70 million in 2008.